


and every breath we drew was hallelujah

by PensamientosOscuros



Category: LOONA (Korea Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Demons, F/F
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-08
Updated: 2019-05-08
Packaged: 2020-02-28 17:39:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,030
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18761230
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PensamientosOscuros/pseuds/PensamientosOscuros
Summary: Jiwoo wasn’t the best judge of character, she recalled her friends telling her, and maybe they weren’t referring to her deciding to see the best in a literal demon, but she knew it applied.





	and every breath we drew was hallelujah

It was hot, hotter than it should be.

 

Jiwoo frowned, tugging at the neck of her uniform. The hand holding her pencil was beginning to grow sweaty, making her hold slip. She looked around, and noticed with displeasure that a few of her classmates had started fanning themselves, murmuring their discomfort in the quietness of the exam. Oh, she was  _ in  _ for it later.

 

“Miss Park, may I open the window?” Someone asked behind her, and she almost shook her head in annoyance. It wouldn’t help.

 

“Go ahead. I think the thermostat is malfunctioning,” said a bewildered teacher, who stood up to take a look at the device, which Jiwoo would bet was in perfect condition.

She huffed, popping open the top button of her uniform.

 

Two hours later, she didn’t even look her way when the girl appeared next to her on her walk home.

 

“Hi, sunshine.”

 

Jungeun was wearing a carbon copy of Jiwoo’s navy blue uniform, although for some reason it looked sinful on her slender body, tight in places that made her ears burn. The younger girl didn’t honor her with a reply, opting to keep walking.

 

“Aw, moody today? I can make it better,” her voice, which usually was pleasant and controlled, went down at the end, inhumanly deep.

 

The younger girl sighed, finally looking at Jungeun. Her perfectly crafted human appearance was only betrayed by a bright red circle around her pupils, and Jiwoo hated that she felt her resolve crumbling at the sight of lips curving up. “You were in my exam today.”

 

She stepped closer to Jiwoo, blonde hair fluttering around her like a halo, and shrugged. 

 

“I wanted to see you.”

 

“You didn’t have to make the room an oven, though! I could’ve failed that exam. I studied for days.”

 

“You pulled an all-nighter,” deadpanned the girl, before letting her voice drop once again, “and I like seeing you flustered, you know that.”

 

Jiwoo picked up her pace, futilely trying to hide the annoying way in which her face reddened at the words. She could hear the smugness in the girl’s laugh behind her.

\--

She first saw her at school, on a random day.

 

She thought nothing of it, of course; a pretty girl she didn’t know was hardly a remarkable sight at her school. She stayed in her mind, though, with her long brown hair and red lips, just a casual bystander in her dreams. Her overactive mind latched onto that single image until the details blurred and she was but another short infatuation. Then, she saw her again, and her hair was blonde.

 

She remembered the girl walking home with her unprompted one day, happy to continue every conversation and follow every joke, and her chest fluttered for this girl who came out of nowhere and decided to talk to her, out of all people.

 

She should’ve paid more attention.

 

Strange things started happening around her, and the new girl – Jungeun, she had introduced herself with a dazzling smile – seemed unfazed by it all. It was as if she wasn’t aware of others’ misfortune, or as if she didn’t care. Particularly striking was the instance when they witnessed a car speeding past them, barely giving Jiwoo any time to react before it slammed into a cat, a stray that frequented the neighborhood in search of the food some charitable residents would feed it. Jiwoo’s horrified scream was met with an intense stare before Jungeun steered them to an adjacent street wordlessly. She could still recall the sickening thud the car made, the animal’s strangled last meow, and especially the atypical heat enclosing her wrist where Jungeun touched her. 

 

Naturally, Jiwoo was immediately alert after that, observant as she was.

 

It was as if Jungeun could feel the confrontation coming (and in retrospect, maybe she could) because a few days later, as they walked to Jiwoo’s house and the younger girl turned to ask her what the  _ heck  _ was going on, Jungeun’s beautiful brown eyes lit up a terrifying red, and, well. The rest was history.

 

Jiwoo had to give it to her, though, she was a nice… _ being  _ for not abandoning her passed out in the middle of the street, instead breaching her property and placing her unconscious body on her own bed. She didn’t have to do that, Jiwoo reasoned, but she did! That had to count for something, right?

 

Against her better judgement she kept it secret, partly respecting Jungeun’s wishes, and partly because she didn’t want to rot inside the psych ward of a hospital.

 

She wasn’t the best judge of character, she recalled her friends telling her, and maybe they weren’t referring to her deciding to see the best in a literal  _ demon,  _ but she knew it applied.

\--

“I am trying  _ so  _ hard, unnie, but you need to cover me, or we’re over.” Hyejoo’s serious voice was loud and clear through the gamer headphones Jiwoo was wearing, but instead of improving her aim, it only managed to distract her. “Look out, he’s on that building!”

 

“I’m sorry!” she replied, trying to contain the giggle bubbling up her throat at her friend’s groan when she failed to take down a sniper. They had been playing for two hours now – it was tradition to devote their Friday nights to their game, Coca Cola cans and snacks sprinkled around her computer like gifts at an altar, just screaming at each other through a headset.

 

“Unnie, come on, you…” Suddenly, her screen went black, Hyejoo’s displeased voice cut off by loud static. 

 

“Hello, gorgeous.”

 

Jiwoo gasped, turning around with a scream ready to spill past her lips only to be met with Jungeun’s cocky smile, shoulder propped against the frame of the girl’s window.

 

“Oh my god, you scared me! Can’t you just knock like a normal person?” Her heart was on the verge of dislodging from her chest, and the pretty way in which the demon threw her head back and laughed didn’t help. She prayed that she couldn’t hear her erratic pulse; if she did, she wouldn’t hear the end of it.

 

“So cute,” she said as a greeting, eyes roving up and down the girl. The student tried to stop her own gaze from wandering, but it was hard when the fiend standing in her room was unfairly, unnaturally attractive in just jeans and a leather jacket. She noted absentmindedly that her hair was brown again, her lips painted blood red as always. “Your heartbeat sounds delicious, so I think I did well.” Ah,  _ shit. _

 

Jiwoo cleared her throat. “You interrupted my game. I was about to secure new ground…”

 

“You were being  _ demolished _ , darling. I think I did your friend a favor by pulling you out of there.” The student saw Hyejoo’s name flash in her phone above a string of text messages out the corner of her eye; the younger girl would kill her if the literal demon inside her room didn’t do it first. “What you got there?”

 

Jiwoo turned around to gauge what she meant. “These are completely natural, organic snacks I hand-picked from a farm down the street.”

 

“Are those Doritos?”

 

Jiwoo gasped, joke forgotten. “You know Doritos? Do you have them…you know. There?”

 

Jungeun looked at her, amusement drawn in every plane of her flawless face. “You mean in Hell?”

 

The student nodded, intent on not saying the word out loud, lest it would make the situation more real.

 

“Wouldn’t be much of a Hell if we had Doritos, love. That’s why I’m eating yours.”

 

Jiwoo’s rational thinking went out the window, overpowered by her instantaneous excitement at being able to share her snacks with someone who seemed to have very limited knowledge of processed foods. Her eyes almost gleamed.

 

“We’re gonna eat  _ everything _ ! See, my mom told me I bought too much stuff, but I knew they’d come in handy.” She didn’t think when she closed her hand around Jungeun’s abnormally hot wrist, pulling her towards her bed. The demon followed pliantly, barely concealed amusement on her face. “Now – hey, shoes off the bed! –  _ now _ , you have to rate them. I’m  _ dead  _ serious.”

 

They spent an hour like that, Jiwoo’s excitement overcompensating for the creature’s dull demeanor, who simply let the girl ramble about whatever topic that came to mind, occasionally answering her questions. The atmosphere was relaxed, like it would be with any of her friends, soft music wafting through the air, their closeness comfortable.

 

“Why do your eyes change colors like that?”

 

“Huh?” The demon looked genuinely surprised for the first time, slowly munching on one of the deadly snacks Jiwoo had presented her with. Jiwoo’s open face was incongruous in the conversation, she realized, but she didn’t care enough to look serious. Her eyes were set on Jungeun’s, a lovely shade of brown.

 

“Like right now, they’re not red or anything. Usually they glow. Why’s that?”

 

Jungeun looked at her absently, trying to understand what she was hearing. Jiwoo sat there, unassuming, as if asking a demon questions about their demonic physiology was a normal affair.  _ Really _ , a voice that sounded a lot like Haseul’s told her,  _ it’s a miracle that you’re still alive. _

 

“I usually can control it. They don’t burn when I don’t want them to. Sometimes, it disappears when I’m just…” she hesitated, as humane as ever. It was an odd sight, Jungeun looking something other than completely, absolutely self-assured. Before Jiwoo could apologize for her inquiry, the demon’s head snapped to the side with unbelievable speed, as if paying attention to something far, far away. The distended air became tense in a second; Jiwoo could feel it in the bristling of her skin, and the regret that pooled in her mouth.

 

The demon got off the bed without making a sound. “Sorry to cut this short, princess,” she said, not sounding apologetic at all as she dusted off her pants, heading towards the window without looking at Jiwoo, “but duty calls. Don’t miss me too much.” She turned just enough to wink at the shocked girl - red halos back in her eyes -, who could only stare at the demon as she slithered out of her window. Jiwoo sprang up and ran to her window, fingers grasping the frame tightly as she looked down at the two floors drop. As expected, there was no trace of the girl.

 

She had a fitful sleep that night, and during breakfast her heart stopped at the news broadcast droning on from the radio, announcing in little detail the mysterious death of two petty criminals, suspiciously close to Jiwoo’s house.

 

She prayed that she was wrong.

_ \-- _

She had been waiting for Jungeun to appear all evening.

 

She hadn’t really seen her much lately other than the short walks home together, the demon’s favorite time of the day to appear, and she was self-aware enough to admit that she missed the girl’s company. She still appeared in her dreams sometimes, like she did back when she infiltrated her life as easily as someone walked through an open door. Her appearance tended to be over exaggerated in her imagination – her brain would conjure images of a bloody Jungeun, eyes pitch black and teeth sharpened so the simplest graze would be lethal, hungry for something that only humanity could sate. However, it was the soft Jungeun of her dreams, as gentle as an angel could be, eyes brown and sincere and full of kindness that made her wake up with a sob lodged in her throat.

 

Had she always been malevolent? Jiwoo doubted it. She honestly didn’t think she was misreading the girl, who despite herself, managed to show Jiwoo some parts of her that she didn’t like to acknowledge. Jiwoo was inherently optimistic, which meant that it would hurt more if her assumptions ended up being wrong. Still, she chose to believe there was some humanity buried deep inside Jungeun, waiting to be rescued.

 

Jiwoo sighed dejectedly, throwing her book away on top of the bed, unable to concentrate enough to assimilate what she was reading. She was  _ dying  _ to know more about the otherworldly being who inexplicably kept showing up in her life, just not when she actually wanted her to. She had been blowing Chaewon off for two days straight, just so she’d be alone in case Jungeun decided to grace her with her presence, and there she was, alone and feeling more stupid by the second.

 

Out of the blue, the clanking sound of pans bumping together dragged her out of her trance. She was supposed to be alone until dinner time. With wide eyes, she looked at her alarm clock, which innocently displayed the time to be definitely way too early for either of her parents to have come back. Abstractedly, she thought about the absurdity of having a demon regularly visit her, and still be afraid of a possible home invader.

 

_ Wait. _

 

Hoping to god that she wasn’t about to make a gigantic mistake, the girl opened her closet and pulled out her old tennis racket, the dusty old thing providing some comfort as she walked down the stairs, handle tight in her hands. She was as silent as her usually uncoordinated feet allowed her, sweat was pooling on her lower back, when she finally turned the corner and…

 

“I knew it!”

 

“Fuck!” Jungeun yelped, dropping whatever that was in her hand to the floor. The demon turned to her, startled for the first time since Jiwoo had met her, and her eyes looked particularly furious seizing up a victorious girl pointing at her with a racket. She had never seen her with black hair before. Just then, Jiwoo noticed the arm crossing Jungeun’s torso, small under the heavy coat, what looked like charred fingers protruding from the open sleeve.

 

“Wh-what happened?” She was beside her in an instant, leaving the racket rattling as it fell to the floor. The demon’s deranged expression softened slightly, but still looked frighteningly dangerous. “Jungeun  _ unnie _ , what happened to your arm? It’s…”

 

Her voice was dark and intimidating. “Listen, I just want some alcohol, that’s literally all I want.” At the girl’s lost look, the demon winced and laughed lowly, not a hint of humor in the sound. “If you don’t have anything here, I’ll go to…”

 

“No! You stay here, I’m sure that my parents have…there must be a bottle here, somewhere. Just…” her eyes were as imploring as her voice, “stay here. Okay?”

 

The demon didn’t appear too convinced, but for the moment it looked like she’d resign herself to propping her hip against the marble counter, holding her arm like it was broken. The younger girl lost no time rummaging through all the cupboards, not caring about the mess she was undoubtedly making, desperate to keep the girl in the dimly lit kitchen with her. 

 

She didn’t know what had hurt her – she didn’t even know anything  _ could  _ hurt a demon –, and the thought of leaving her to her luck was more terrifying than any devil.

 

Triumphantly, she raised a bottle of vodka above her head, scrambling to take it to the injured creature that looked ready to storm the kitchen. She uncapped the bottle and offered it to the girl, unsure of what to do next. Luckily for her, Jungeun was a woman of action. Taking the bottle from her hand unceremoniously, she tipped it back, taking long gulps as if it were water, a couple droplets missing her mouth and running down her pale neck.

 

Jiwoo was horrified.

 

“Will that help?” She asked meekly, grimacing after every gulp. She foolishly thought that the alcohol would be for the injury, and not her liver.

 

The woman finally lowered the bottle, unfazed that she had downed half a bottle of pure vodka in a few seconds. “It fucking better,” she muttered bitterly. Jiwoo didn’t know what to do, so she just stayed there, fidgeting with the cuff of her sweater, anxiously waiting for the demon to elaborate.

 

“How can I help?”

 

Maybe Jungeun read the anguish in Jiwoo’s words, or maybe she was feeling especially generous, but she looked at her tiredly, so unlike the Jungeun she knew, and slanted her mouth into a smile.

 

“A kiss would do  _ wonders  _ for me right now, princess.”

 

Jiwoo’s cheeks inflamed instantaneously. She couldn’t believe her ears.

 

“No! Oh my god, I meant for your hand!” She signaled to the obviously injured limb that remained blackened and unattended, crossing along her chest.

 

“Me too.”

 

The student braved her nervousness and walked up to the girl, slowly extending her arms like one would do with an injured animal. Too fast, and she would bolt.

 

“May I?” She asked softly, not expecting the girl to comply. Really, Jungeun was a box full of surprises, Jiwoo thought, as she stretched out her arm to allow the girl to inspect the burned flesh. It looked painful – it  _ was  _ painful, if her facial expression was any indication –, and Jiwoo felt compassion welling deep in her gut.

 

“What happened?” Her fingers were gentle, barely daring to brush the skin. She thought she imagined Jungeun’s soft sigh.

 

“Too much fun, I’m afraid. I’ll get over it, this shit heals quickly. It just hurts like a bitch right now.”

 

Relief flooded her at the knowledge that she would heal on her own. “Thank god, because I have  _ no  _ idea how to perform first aid! I was just going to wing it and pray that you wouldn’t notice.”

 

The first genuine smile of the day made its way onto inhumanly beautiful lips. “I have a feeling that I would.”

 

They moved to her bedroom shortly after, just in case one of Jiwoo’s parents made it home earlier than expected. Jiwoo never realized how imposing Jungeun’s presence was; her entire room felt warmer, fuller with her there.

 

“Do you know Harry Potter?”

 

The demon, who was still cradling her hand to her chest, rolled her eyes. “If this turns into a talk about your favorite books, I have a couple souls to damn tonight…”

 

“No!” She interjected, hoping that that last part was a joke, knowing that it probably wasn’t. “There’s a character in the books that gets injured just like you, burned arm and everything.”

 

Jungeun looked at her then, unimpressed. “And what happened to them?”

 

“He died.” Well, that was mortifying.

 

The demon smiled, her face more relaxed than it was half an hour ago, red eyes glinting. “Sadly for you, that’s not an option here, love.”

\--

“Holy  _ shit, _ ” Nayeon said, pushing her chair back. The metal legs screeched against the cafeteria’s floor, drawing a few people’s attention, “Chaeyoung just texted me. Apparently Junsu just broke someone’s arm in front of the auditorium.”

 

Jiwoo, who was staring at her with eyes wide open, felt her heart lurch in her chest. Junsu was one of their close friends, a senior as well, part of the football team and dearly protective of the girls. It wouldn’t take him much to snap someone’s arm with his considerable size, she rationalized, if he was that kind of guy.

 

“You’re kidding,” added Haseul, who was already on her feet, food forgotten in front of her.

 

“He would never! It must be a mix-up, he couldn’t…”

 

Suddenly, realization dawned upon her. Without a word, she got on her feet and made her way towards the auditorium, a flabbergasted Haseul hot on her tail. She noticed how her steps became more rushed and clumsy, but she needed to confirm her suspicions before her heart dropped into her stomach.

 

There was a commotion around the scene, and the student had to fight her way between outstretched arms holding a myriad of phones and hard elbows to find what she was looking for. In normal circumstances, she would be nauseous at the sight of Junsu, red in the face and crazed eyes almost bulging out of his head, being held back by a couple of his teammates, victim nowhere in sight. However, what made bile crawl up her esophagus was the peek of blonde hair and red lips on the other side of the circle, looking directly at her before disappearing in the crowd.

 

Hours later, she was sitting next to her toilet, taking comfort in the coldness of the tiles on her skin.

 

The prevalent fear that Jungeun’s fixation with her would translate into her friends suffering at her hands was finally proving to be justified, and the realization was appalling. She didn’t know what to do, the reason for Jungeun’s appearance in her life nor how to get rid of her overpowering existence, and she felt completely helpless. It drove her crazy knowing that even if she had an answer, she wouldn’t use it.

 

She had spent hours sitting down on the floor, until a sharp pain on her lower back told her it had been long enough. Mustering all the strength left in her body she stood up and opened the tap, leaning down to splash cold water over her ruddy cheeks.

 

When she straightened back up, Jungeun’s reflection behind her almost sent her into cardiac arrest.

 

“You…!” She started, bringing a hand to her chest above her erratic heart.

 

“Here,” said the demon, handing her a towel, face neutral.

 

Jiwoo stared at her incredulously, accepting the towel when she felt a few droplets sneaking down her neck. She didn’t like being impolite, even when it came to the demon that had been haunting her for months without any signs of stopping, but she fought against her manners and snatched the towel from her hand. Her arm was back to perfect shape; she said nothing about it.

 

“No thank you?” Jiwoo scrunched up her nose in annoyance at the demon’s teasing. She was foolish for even feeling disappointment, yet there she was. The anger that had brewed inside her slowly throughout the day finally erupted, hot like lava escaping a volcano.

 

“You don’t deserve any thanks! You are evil, and cruel, and selfish! How can you talk to me every day and pretend to be my friend and…and be like  _ that _ ?” Her words were choked, her eyes brimming with tears at the pure betrayal she felt, but worse of all was the thought that she had deluded herself into believing that a creature from the literal underworld could be decent, for her. “He’s my friend! And some kid got his arm snapped in half!” She had never dared to speak to the being like that, but Jungeun’s perfidy suffocated her. “You make me care about you, and you only hurt me back. I can’t do this to my friends.”

 

Her fists were clenched pathetically by her sides in frustration, trembling.

 

“This has nothing to do with you.” The demon’s voice was cold, lacking its usual mocking lilt. “This is what I am. I don’t do things just to spite you, Jiwoo. I’m a demon, what else did you expect?”

 

Jiwoo scolded herself for believing her voice sounded almost regretful.

 

“Then, why do you keep coming back to me? You exist for evil, yet you come here and spend all this time with me, uselessly. What’s the point?” She sounded tired, even to her own ears. “What’s the point?” She repeated softly, pleading with her eyes.

 

She gasped in shock when Jungeun lurched forward right in front of her, eyes incandescent red and mouth in a tight line. She could feel the hellish heat of Jungeun’s body seeping into her skin.

 

“There’s no point,” she growled, looking straight into her eyes, seeing her soul, as she guessed demons did. “There’s no fucking point, yet I keep coming back to  _ you _ . What does that say about me?”

 

Her breathing was heavy, the first time Jiwoo even realized that the girl needed to  _ breathe _ , and with a snarl, she disappeared.

 

Jiwoo felt the air enter her lungs all at once, almost knocking her backwards.

What was  _ that _ ?

\--

She woke up with a scream choking inside her throat. Her shirt stuck to her damp skin uncomfortably with every stuttering breath she took.

 

“Everything alright, darling?”

 

Jiwoo closed her eyes, and forcefully pushed the fear creeping up her chest down. She hadn’t heard about the demon in days, way longer than any other break she had from her, and she hated to admit that she was caught off guard. Of course, it was typical Jungeun to just show up and act like nothing had happened.

 

Jungeun was perched on her desk, playing with the girl’s brand new Nintendo Switch. Her red-ringed eyes took her in attentively. Jiwoo could see a faint smirk silhouetted by the screen’s light, a permanent fixture on the entity’s face.

 

“Why do you hate me,” she grunted before falling back into her bed, tiredness clinging to her every bone. Although she – very unfortunately – had come to miss her, she had no patience for whatever the demon in the corner of her room wanted, but said being didn’t care for her wishes.

 

“On the contrary, my dear,” she said, abandoning the device quietly by her side. Jiwoo heard her creeping closer, making her hair stand on end. “I would love nothing more than to help you go to sleep, if only you’d let me…”

 

Now,  _ this _ Jiwoo knew well. She had endured Jungeun’s presence for months, although the exact date escaped her, and she was used to her morally dubious advances. She often wondered if the demon truly meant them, or if they were just a way to rile her up and make her uncomfortable. She didn’t know which one she preferred.

 

“Whatever you have in mind, it probably doesn’t involve sleeping,” she finally said. She turned her head towards the girl, who loomed next to her bed, wearing something black that made her blend in the dark. Despite her ways, Jiwoo had to admit that the demon seemed to be all bark and no bite, and she sighed, hating how she couldn’t stay mad at the creature for long. “I’ll only let you in here if you promise to cuddle me  _ only _ .” 

 

She saw the red intensify for a millisecond.

 

“Of course, princess. Hands off.” She made a show of putting her hands in the air, smile still in place. If she was surprised by how quickly the girl gave in, she showed absolutely no sign of it. Without another word she got on the bed, moving closer to the girl until Jiwoo could feel the heat radiating off her body, too hot to be a human’s. Surprisingly, the thought didn’t worry her as much as it should have.

 

She turned her body towards the demon after a few minutes of restless tossing and turning, and latched onto her like a pillow. She did promise her cuddling, after all. After a few minutes she felt strong arms pulling her closer, and she didn’t complain.

 

“Did you miss me?” She asked, muffled by a covered shoulder, and the deep rumble of laughter inside Jungeun’s chest relaxed her more than any chamomile tea could.

 

“Maybe,” was the last thing she heard before the heat lulled her into a dreamless sleep.

\--

She was sitting alone, her back propped against the hard trunk of a tree, furiously scribbling things down onto the worn out journal she liked to take to the park sometimes, in case inspiration struck. It was a lovely day out, warm enough that she could finally wear one of her colorful sundresses and feel the blades of grass on her calves.

 

“It’s creepy to stare, you know.” She didn’t have to look around to feel a heavy gaze upon her, almost physically weighing her down. It made her shiver.

 

Jungeun chuckled, half impressed. “The hunter becomes the hunted, how tragic.”

 

Jiwoo finally looked up, smiling brightly. “How was your day?”

 

The demon looked at her, her head slightly tilted like an especially curious puppy. Despite her diabolic nature, her features were soft and round, only sharp at certain edges. Jiwoo had trouble believing such an angelic face could belong to a demon in the flesh. Her hair was blonde again; she couldn’t choose a favorite hue on her. 

 

She observed as the woman looked away and raised her hand, diligently watching an ant leisurely crawling up the flesh, lost.

 

“Same old, you know. A couple accidents, a couple fights. The usual.”

 

Jiwoo gasped, slamming her journal closed. “No way! You said you’d be good!”

 

She recalled the conversation they had the night before, during her now routinely visits in which she would cuddle Jiwoo to sleep before disappearing, leaving no trace of her presence behind. The human made her pinky promise ( _ ‘sweetheart, they would stab you sixteen different ways in Hell for even suggesting this’ _ ) that she would behave; that meant no diabolical ministrations, and no hurting people. Jungeun rolled her eyes before wrapping her finger around Jiwoo’s, and the younger girl’s grin almost split her face in two.

 

“I said I would  _ try _ ,” the demon corrected, smirking like she had managed to deceive the smartest person in the world. “And I didn’t do anything truly  _ bad _ ; don’t ask for more than that, or you’ll be sorely disappointed.” Then, she squished the ant.

 

The high school student stared at her hard for a few seconds in disbelief, sensing her previously cheery mood dropping dangerously low. She didn’t speak for a while, but Jungeun didn’t look like she cared. She didn’t care about many things, it seemed like.

 

“Were you…human? Before what you are now?”

 

There was that gaze again, heavy like physical touch. “And what would I be now, sweetie?”

 

_ A monster,  _ she should say, but it didn’t feel right. Apparently, she got tired of waiting for a response, because she continued speaking.

 

“Not every demon was a human in a former life, love. You’ll probably die and end up with the ones above or some shit, so don’t even worry about it.”

 

“That’s not what I asked.”

 

She was afraid that she said the wrong thing and she tensed up, waiting for a sardonic laugh and a barely veiled threat.

 

“Yeah,” Jungeun said, looking up at the sky. The red ring pulsated and disappeared for a second. “I was.”

**Author's Note:**

> first fic i promise to finish!
> 
> thank you j ladies for helping with this
> 
> @jiwendys


End file.
